The Hard Places

It is hard to believe that it has been almost two months since my last post!  It has been a busy spring so far with test prep season in full swing (my students take their state tests in 3 weeks!), lots of traveling to Rome and Birmingham for various fun activities, and a semester full of graduate school work! It has flown by and the countdown is on until the start of summer- 20 school days left! With June and July just around the corner, I have been busy planning things to fill my free time.  I'll be celebrating weddings, visiting with friends, spending time at the beach with the family, taking a class, preparing for next year, hopefully making some extra money somehow, AND going on a 10 day mission trip to Cambodia (in between Thailand and Vietnam) with Fondren Church!

It has been two years since I went out of the country on a mission trip and I have been on the lookout for new opportunities.  Our pastor talked about the Hard Places Community (HPC) one Sunday in February and I officially signed up in late March.  I am SO excited about this trip but I am also very apprehensive about all that I will encounter.  The Hard Places Community works specifically with young girls and boys in Phnom Penh (the capital) who are being sexually exploited.  We have had several team meetings now and my heart is already aching for the children (some as young as three years old) that walk the Riverfront trying to sell books or water but are often times taken home and raped by a stranger promising a meal or $5.  Many of these girls and boys are sold to pimps by their families because they have no skills or education to make money any other way.  And with such dedication to the family in Cambodia, many children feel obligated to help support their family in whatever way possible.  There is also a great deal of oppression and fear present in all Cambodians as a result of the genocide by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970's where an estimated 1.7 million people were killed over the span of 3 years.   Since the end of the Khmer Rouge, the country has basically had to start over entirely.

As our team learns about the hard place that so many Cambodians are currently in, we also begin to realize our role and the work that is already being completed through HPC.  Our goal during the 7 days we are in the country will be to empower these children, women, and men by teaching them English, giving them a safe place to play and grow, helping them realize their worth in Christ, and providing opportunities to escape their current situations.  We will be working in HPC's boys center, the girls safe house, and in the afternoons doing Kids Club (very similar to VBS) in the park and outside the temple.  Both of these places where we will be doing Kids Club have a high concentration of children who are prostituted to foreigners and/or locals.  Through Kids Club, the boys center, and the girls safe house HPC forms relationships with these children and learns about  the people who might be exploiting them.  They can then report this to the proper authorities or try to help the child escape through the boys center, safe house, or another partnering agency.

There is so much more to learn in order to begin to understand the lives of this oppressed and often forgotten people.  I am excited about reading, watching, and hearing more in preparation for the trip but I also know the only true way to understand is to be there in the midst of it all.  Please be in prayer for me and the rest of our team (there are 12 of us total ranging from one 16 year old to a couple in their mid-50's).  Pray for discernment and strength as we will be physically and spiritually exhausted.  Pray for safety and physical health throughout the trip.  Pray for the people that we will encounter.  Pray that their hearts be opened to freedom and hope in Christ.  Pray that we will be effective bearers of light and that we will work and grow together as a team.  Pray for the full time HPC staff who live and work in the middle of all of the spiritual muck in Cambodia each and every day.  Above all else, pray that the Lord's will be carried out and that all of the glory and honor would go directly to Him.  "Apart from me you can do nothing" John 15:5

To learn more about the Hard Places Community, visit their website: http://hardplaces-community.org/
I will try to post more information about our trip as we get closer and definitely look forward to sharing with you all that the Lord did in and through us!